Hi,
it's been a while since I registered but so far have not posted any pic of my aqua. This is a learning aqua so the layout has been somewhat left behind. I have kept fish in the past and plants (low tech) as well (mosses, cryptocorine), I even tried with DIY CO2 but things did not work out very well. After some years of absence, I got the hook again and started a little project where the focus are the plants so so here it is.
It started as a dry-start in january mostly because I had little plant mass but honestly, I do not think it was a great advantage and this is what I've got after 8 months.
Tank: 12L (~10 L with hardscape)
Light: 11 watt
Filter: Hang-on Eheim with sponge
Substrate: Plain gravel
Rock: collected locally (basalt)
CO2: pressurized via old JBL system (1.5 bubbles per sec)
No heat: ~23 ºC now (~15ºC in February/March)
Fertilization: EI (NPK as in James' web site, micro as Fase 1 from Elos - once it finished I have the dry salts).
Fauna: red-cherry; neritine snail, freshwater limpets (came with plants probably), rotifers...
Plants: Hemianthus callitrichoides, Hemianthus micranthemopides, Eleocharis parvula, Echinodorus tenellus (the latter was all dead but 1 plant after the dry-start, but it is now recovering and sending runners for the first time)
After some turbulent periods, the tank is now quite stable (despite the mere 10 L) and I have not cleaned the glass for 1 month. Algal free except in the CO2 diffusor which I have to clean every other week. In the past I have fought BGA and staghorn.
Before a the week maintenance:
After the maintenance:
The HM grows quite well and I have to trim it every 2 weeks.
Against my predictions (due to very low light levels) the HC is growing albeit slowly. Still quite healthy and it pearls despite the rather weak amount of light.
A lot of the things I used I have learned from this (and Tom Barr's) forum so thank you all for the collective wisdom.
My moderate success with this tank I atribute to the overall low light, which kind of make things easier in such a small and unstable microecosystem. And as it showed me, I hope it also shows others that even HC can be grown with a rather small light output.
Hope you enjoy it.
cheers,
GM
it's been a while since I registered but so far have not posted any pic of my aqua. This is a learning aqua so the layout has been somewhat left behind. I have kept fish in the past and plants (low tech) as well (mosses, cryptocorine), I even tried with DIY CO2 but things did not work out very well. After some years of absence, I got the hook again and started a little project where the focus are the plants so so here it is.
It started as a dry-start in january mostly because I had little plant mass but honestly, I do not think it was a great advantage and this is what I've got after 8 months.
Tank: 12L (~10 L with hardscape)
Light: 11 watt
Filter: Hang-on Eheim with sponge
Substrate: Plain gravel
Rock: collected locally (basalt)
CO2: pressurized via old JBL system (1.5 bubbles per sec)
No heat: ~23 ºC now (~15ºC in February/March)
Fertilization: EI (NPK as in James' web site, micro as Fase 1 from Elos - once it finished I have the dry salts).
Fauna: red-cherry; neritine snail, freshwater limpets (came with plants probably), rotifers...
Plants: Hemianthus callitrichoides, Hemianthus micranthemopides, Eleocharis parvula, Echinodorus tenellus (the latter was all dead but 1 plant after the dry-start, but it is now recovering and sending runners for the first time)
After some turbulent periods, the tank is now quite stable (despite the mere 10 L) and I have not cleaned the glass for 1 month. Algal free except in the CO2 diffusor which I have to clean every other week. In the past I have fought BGA and staghorn.
Before a the week maintenance:
After the maintenance:
The HM grows quite well and I have to trim it every 2 weeks.
Against my predictions (due to very low light levels) the HC is growing albeit slowly. Still quite healthy and it pearls despite the rather weak amount of light.
A lot of the things I used I have learned from this (and Tom Barr's) forum so thank you all for the collective wisdom.
My moderate success with this tank I atribute to the overall low light, which kind of make things easier in such a small and unstable microecosystem. And as it showed me, I hope it also shows others that even HC can be grown with a rather small light output.
Hope you enjoy it.
cheers,
GM
